Photographs of Ana Kriegel, published today with her family’s permission, chronicle her colourful and noise-filled passage from playful child to vibrant teenager, a young woman feeling her way, trying out different hair styles and colours and different clothes.

The pictures sing with her exuberance. Her tall, sparkling presence offers a glimpse of the woman Ana might have grown up to be had her life not been so brutally taken from her at 14 years of age.

Ana was adopted by her parents Geraldine and Patric Kriegel when she was two-and- a-half-years old. She was from Siberia and her mother said she grew to be “extremely” tall for her age – like a typical Siberian – which also made her an excellent swimmer.

“She loved dancing,” her mother said in evidence at the murder trial. “She spent hours in our front room, listening to music, practising her moves, singing, dancing.”

Ana could walk for miles on her own, listening to music on her blue headphones. She was a “loner” but she was excited to go to secondary school and volunteered for everything: the choir, talent shows and modelling in a fashion show. But her innocent nature would make her a target of other children.

Ana had a big personality, according to Social Democrat TD Catherine Murphy, a family friend. The Kriegel home was “noisy” because Ana was in it, and her parents often talked about the foundations being undermined because of the noise, Catherine laughingly recalled on RTE’s Prime Time last week.

Ana was their strength and their dream come true. “She’ll stay in our hearts, forever loved and forever cherished,” her parents said after the trial. “We love you Ana.”

The photographs of Ana shared today are testament to that: from beaming pink princess to shy Goth teenager, their love for Ana is evident in every one.

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